1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector, particularly to a female connector having improved electrostatic discharge protection.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A large amount of electrostatics may be accumulated by a human body when the ambient relative humidity drops to 50% or below. In this situation, it is possible for a person to build up electrostatic charges and inadvertently have electrostatic discharges (ESD) occur wherever he touches. For consideration of handling and manual operation, most electrical components are recommended to establish grounding paths on their surfaces for protect the inner integrated circuits due to susceptibility to damage from ESD.
Some efforts have been made before to establish a grounding trace or install an additional module on the inner circuit board to protect the main circuit thereon as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,667,266 and 4,477,134. Recently, the grounding effect is intended to be directly established outside. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,532,419, 4,531,176, 4,824,377 and 4,955,817, a grounding path protruding beyond the contacts or the circuit pads can easily catch an electrostatic discharge thereon, if any, and protect the inner connected circuits from ESD.
It can be seen this type ESD protection is a very simple way which uses a unitary conductive member encircling or protruding beyond the contacts or terminals so that the hand will not easily touch the contacts or the terminals without contacting that conductive member first, thus the grounding path functioning thereof and preventing any electrostatic discharges from directly occurring on the contacts or the terminals. In accordance with the foregoing description, ESD protection principle applied to the electrical component is easy, but it is deemed useful and practical.
The present invention is to provide an improvement of the female connector disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,824,377. In that prior art connector, a wire has been introduced to be mounted on the front surface of the insulator so that an electrostatic discharge directed towards the conductive pins of the female pin connector when not connected to a mating plug will be discharged through said conductive wire and grounding terminal rather than being discharged to the contacts of the female pin connector. Although the wire can achieve ESD protection, these are still some shortcomings as follows.
First, the wire is not easily fixedly mounted on the insulator, and may be floating on, even dropped from, the insulator due to sudden vibration imposed on its poor securement. By the way, using other methods such as adhesion or printing of the conductive member are less economic than securement via a simple mechanical structure. Secondly, it is not easy to handle a thin wire for installation on the insulator, and this will increase difficulties in automation assembling. Thirdly, it is not easy to control a properly sufficient engagement between the wire and the conductive shell which is connected to a grounding terminal, such that the possible poor engagement may jeopardize grounding effect of ESD protection. Additionally, it is not convenient to configure the specific height of the wire beyond the front surface of the insulator, while that height may be designedly different to accommodatingly correspond to the different dimensioned connectors. Also, although the wire is expected to have a sharp edge with relatively small radii for increasing surface charge density, it is not easy for the wire to configure the same.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved construction for a connector which can eliminate these disadvantages of the prior art connector and achieve a better ESD protection function in either operation or manufacturing.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a specific type ESD protection means on a connector, which can be easily and fixedly mounted to the connector and keep an electrically close and sufficient engagement thereof for grounding.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an ESD protection means which can easily not only be assembled to the connector by automation assembling, but also be shaped to have a sharp edge or a proper height to accommodate the associated connector.